In Monday’s season finale of the long-running Fox drama, Brennan — buoyed in part by a certain Big Bad’s escalating reign of terror — overcame her aversion to marriage and popped the question to Booth. His answer? “Hell, yes!”

But in a heartbreaking twist, Pelant (who has an allergic reaction to even the whiff of happiness, particularly where B&B are concerned) threatened to whack five random strangers if Booth didn’t end the engagement. And adding insult to injury, Booth wasn’t allowed to tell Brennan why he was calling it off!

Cut to a bewildered and devastated Brennan, cue the closing credits.

In the following Q&A, Bones EP Stephen Nathan takes us inside the action-packed hour and teases what’s to come in Season 9 (hint: time jumps, deaths, rigged alarm clocks, possible break-ups and more!)

TVLINE | What you did to Booth and Brennan was just… not right. [Laughs] It was so much fun to do!

TVLINE | Couldn’t Booth, you know, tell Brennan what was really going on somewhere outside of Pelant’s reach — like in the shower?
No. There’s too much at stake. It’s not just Brennan’s life but Christine’s, too. He has a daughter he has to think about. And Pelant is crazy. Booth doesn’t want to test those waters, not before they figure out how to get them. And I can promise that they will, and we already know how. Pelant will not live forever.

TVLINE | Will he live beyond the Season 9 premiere?
Yes. He won’t go quietly into the night.

TVLINE | Will the premiere pick up right where the finale left off?
There will be a bit of a time jump. It’s not going to be huge, but it’s going to be enough of a time jump that we can tell their relationship has been through something. It becomes an issue of trust between Booth and Brennan. It’s a very difficult emotional situation for them to be in. We have a lot to contend with heading into Season 9 with this tension and rift. It’s going to be a lot to surmount.

TVLINE | How serious will this obstacle be? Is it going to jeopardize the relationship?
The potential for that is definitely there. We don’t want to soft-pedal this. There’s a secret, and relationships don’t really thrive when one or both parties are withholding something. And I think that’s what we’re going to see. And we do have some episodes that we’re developing now that embrace that conflict.

TVLINE | How hard is Sweets going to take the unintended role he played in Pelant’s latest killing spree? He definitely feels responsible for the death of those people, because Pelant was using Sweets’ work. So there’s fallout from that.

TVLINE | And Booth, I’m guessing, will be on the warpath. Yes. When Season 9 opens up, we will see him quite obsessed with Pelant, quite obsessed with the fact that he wants this guy out of his life. Going through [normal] channels is not working.

TVLINE | Is it now safe to say Pelant messing with Booth and Brennan’s alarm clock last season was just a red herring? It hasn’t been revisited since.
That will play into what comes up next season. That is something we will revisit.

TVLINE | Even though it was a short-lived engagement, the question-popping scene was really sweet. Was there any discussion about having her get down on one knee? We never wanted to do anything excessively traditional with Brennan. And it seemed to us that we had to put her in a situation where she could be spontaneous — something that we’ve seen evolve in her life over time. She’s always so rational that having her character evolve where she can spontaneously do something, she can rationalize it later as she did in the episode, but the reality is she couldn’t imagine living without Booth.

TVLINE | This totally sets things up for Booth to eventually turn the tables and do the proposing himself.
That crossed our minds. But we will have to see how it will unfold. We have our ideas on how this situation might resolve, but it might in no way fall into the current expectations of the fans.

i like this tv show but the brennan and booth relationship is annoying if they break up i will stop watching and also that time jump from season 6 to 7 was stupid usually in tv shows they show those stuff but in bones they skipped all the first time things

i agree pelant is annoying .how much longer are u guys going to keep him in the show. it kind of played out now please move on I love this show but he’s killing it . they finally get and he is messing it up.

I think everyone who is complaining should either shut up or man up. you’re all angry with the bad guy in bones (I THINK THATS THE WHOLE POINT IN CREATING A BAD GUY) you are really threatening to stop watching Bones, thats not going to happen by how much you lot are moaning and OBVIOUSLY HOOKED on Booth and Bones and Pelaunt i dont like the guy either but he is a reasonable bad guy as there is always someone out there who can outsmart the smartest person you know in this case its the bones team. if he got put in jail or killed off within one series it would be boring and you would stop watching because there is no challenge for the Jeffersonian team and fbi. seriously get a grip stop complaining and watch to see how it turns out!!!!

I like Bones because it’s SO over the top ! Brennan is so extremely brilliant with a “born yesterday” kind of naïveté that reminds me of Data from Star Trek. The lab is so high tech fancy, the offices wonderfull plush, the villains so creepy they can painlessly sew up their own faces, and commit wildly fantastic crimes, the staff are wealthy except for a couple of sqinterns, it all reaks of super-cool fantasy crime solving. It’s fun! The wonderful lawyer woman (Julianne?) has the WORST POC car ever.. I keep hoping to learn more about her. I’m looking forward to the next season it’s quite a ride.

I hope that Season 9 is the last season for this show. The last few seasons have been dreadful. Throughout the first 5ish seasons, it was clear that they were never going to have Booth and Brennan get together. But then Emily Deschanel got pregnant IRL, and they had to do something, so they just forced a relationship to happen. Bones character since the pregnancy has been lame. Her stalwart insistence upon logic really set her apart from other female leading ladies. But now she is just another face in the crowd.

Honestly, the show should have ended with the Season 5 finale. That would have been a perfect series finale for this show. But it kept going, because people kept watching. And now it is a complete joke. Pelant is a nonsense villain that gets out of everything. There is no believable way, at this point, for them to catch Pelant within the legal system and keep him there. The way that they have built him up, the other way to ‘conclude’ him is to have someone(probably Booth) kill him in cold blood or ‘by accident’. Regardless, it is time for Bones to wrap things up.

i think booth and bones deserve a happy life. i mean happy couples can still solve crime. being happy wont make them incompetent to solve crimes. this whole keep the audience get boring after a while. instead engaging at least i am getting disinterested. . whereas i really like this two people. so on thw whole this scenario sucks. so i say writer a nd producers and director of the show pls buckle up. i mean you guys surely dont want this great show to just fizzle out.
thanks

I guess I’m definitely in the minority.. I loved the way it ended.. happy happy can only last for so long before it becomes a yawn. I want to see them married and Booth get his happily ever after, but seriously, go there too soon, and the show will end. it’s a last ep, last season thing. We all know they’ll get past this.. its how they do it I’m waiting to see. I love the angst and the messy relationship blues. People have failed to see Booth’s dilemma, Most people only see Brennan and what’s right in front of them and forget to see what’s going on in the background.
If people leave the show because of this? They really aren’t fans of Bones (the show), they’re fans of the relationship only.
My opinions of course. We all have ’em.

WHAT IF Zach from Season 1 came back as Pelant’s sidekick of sorts? I think that the initial shock would be short lived and there may be too much lack of recognition..but I miss Zach, he was the original squintern..

I think pelant is really interesting as its totally different to have a serial killer who is as smart/smarter than bones. I think maybe the season 8 finale would have been a good time to kill him off and have the cliffhanger as bones and booth getting married. I’m definitelygoing to watch season nine although i hope that they move on with some other storyline. Also can they find a way to bring zack back please :'(

Pelant is such a lame and unbelievable antagonist. His “hacking” is just too ridiculous and his physical prowess just isn’t believable for such a wussy looking dude. I’m really ****ing tired of this guy and sincerely hope somebody just bashes the little turd’s face in in the 2nd ep since apparently he’s going to live past the 1st ep so we can move on to a more interesting villain.

I never thought I would dislike watching my favourite show. Ending each season with angst is annoying as hell and unnecessary. Viewers will return with screwing up all major characters. This is just stupid now..

I love Bones but if this breaks them up and they do not Marry I will NEVER watch Bones again, I am sick and tired of shows messing with the good guys and not the bad ones; We have enough of that in real life we don’t need it in a show. I would like for one the bad guy dies and the good people get Married.

I love Bones! The writers are Hart the actors are great and I can see a lot of potential in the show. Every time I watch the show I’m on the tip of my toes till I figure it out and I’ve learned a lot from the science that they put in it. I just love the show!
About Pelant I want to jump though the TV and kill him myself but I can see why the writers put him in there and why they are keeping him alive. He’s a very horrible character but he’s entertaining; the audience hates him for who’s evil deeds but the amazing genius of a team can’t seem to nail him with evidence. And that’s what its so great about it; the writers use the elements of film to get us to feel the same way that the actors who are so real to us we all hate him and there for we’re all upset when they don’t catch him and we root for his capture the whole time. It’s really no different than the quest to clear Max Keenan or trying to catch the Grave Digger/ Heather Taffet. Of course Bones and Booth will get him in the end but it’s the how I’m excited to see.
The relationship things that go pin in this show are intense first it was getting Angela and Hodgins together and them having a baby, and we all knew that Bones and Booth would get together but it’s getting them married now that the audience wants but if it was to easy then that wouldn’t be the shoe we love.

I can’t wait for season 9 and I hope all those who say their gonna quit watching just of some things they don’t like should look past the terrible situation the shows in now and look forward for the wonderful things to come.

The whole,concept of the show has run its course. Unless it is re-invented successfully there is no where to go. All of this has sort of happened before. Palant is too smug. Too able, and there is no computer science to back it up. Get new writers, new actors and refocus on cases. Lets face it, Brennan would be bored with the murders by now anyway. She loves science and hates crime.

I LOVE THIS SHOW… But the Pelant story is getting old. He has been on the show much longer then every other repeating offenders. Point in the show is to make the watchers happy… Took them for ever to get booth and bones together, then you finally get Bones to propose you take it away.. Stop trying to change the show every time it gets good… also Please stop changing how Angela feels about her job she keeps going from loving her job to hating it to loving it to hating it. If she gets off the show at this point the show would be over. Same with all main people.

I will admit, it threw me for a loop when B&B all of a sudden end up having a baby together. I was almost convinced that the whole show would go downhill from there. Thinking about it though, the writers did a good job writing around Emily’s actual pregnancy. As for Pelant, it is definitely a great addition to Bones. It keeps up with one general idea that keeps us on our toes. You can almost never predict what will happen with him. Every time I watch the episodes with him, I feel real emotions; anger, frustration, sadness. It’s things like this that keep me coming back for more episodes. I’m personally not tired of Pelant quite yet, but I do eventually want to see him die. As for B&B’s engagement break-off, I am upset that it went down like that but it did keep me right where I need to be to watch more. That right there makes me want to watch season 9 just in hopes to see Pelant die.

I am a Bones junkie since the beginning of the show, but since Pelant got in there, I wish they could just wrap it up like they did with all the other serial killers and move on to another storyline so we don’t get so annoyed. The show is called Bones, remember? Not Pelant… Cause no other killer ever lasted that long, what’s it been? 3 seasons now? more? Just as it was going to get great this freak got out of hand. And why do they sparkle the episodes about the Pelant cases all around the season instead of just making it a continuous plot and get it over with like they did with the Gormogon case. Cause now all they do is sparkle him all over the place between regular murder cases that would sound much more interesting if they weren’t interrupted by this freak every 3 months or so. Like, thrice a season, during three seasons and all in between it’s like nothing’s ever happened about him? too weird to be real. At first, I thought the bioterrorism attempt was from him too, it would have fitted the profile, but no, just another case that was by the way very thrilling, and Pelant-free! yeah! And why haven’t we heard again from the clock in Booth and Brennan’s bedroom that he switched at the end of season seven, cause I’m sure this is important… Wrap it up, we want new cases, new thrilling cases, just like before. And we want Zack back too!

We haven’t heard about the clock in the bedroom because booth and brennan are never in their bedroom. After a few cute scenes there at the beginning of the season, which were some of my favorites, they never had them back there.

Last night the uk had its bones season 8 season finale and well hart hanson and stephan nathan may have just ended my love of bones ending the engagement and dragging pelant on for a 3rd season all because they like andrew leeds and im sick of the writers messing withs relationship stuff that dont need messing with just to make pelant look more bad. Bravo hanson and nathan u propably lost alot of fans for this as its ckear brennan will never trust both again completely

The other annoying thing is tgat HH and SN have allowed there personal like off andrew leeds who plays pelant to dictate the seasons direction. Noth have said prevuously they love working with him and hoping to continue to work with him now its come to the point pelant is dicatating the story and dicatating how the sjow goes forward. To me the show is no longer bones its more pelant vs bones or pelant featuring bones and this is the worst thing the can do. On top of that the last sentance of the season is by far the most stupid thing I heard. After ending engagement booth says bones were good right. How dumb is that ofc there not good

I don’t have a big issue with the extended Pelant storyline but I would like the show to move along. As others have said, Zach’s fate (and Sweet’s continued silence on the matter) could be revisited and as a Jeffersonian outsider, not subject to Pelant’s wrath, it would be great to have him provide them with the key to Pelant’s demise.

I’m tired of Pelant as well. I think that Booth should use some of his sniping experience and Max’s off the grid experience and take him out. No prison can hold this guy. And I’d like to see Booth solve a crisis for once not depend on the almighty Brennan genius. How many times have other characters insisted that Booth is smarter than he acts? He wouldn’t have survived as a soldier or agent if he was as stupid as they make him out to be. Since he stated that he would kill Pelant, then he should do it himself.

Its the writers unable to write for a married couple, its the Moonlighting curse, its Hart Hansen manipulating his fan base to further his creation. I guess people don’t remember The Thin Man, or Mr and Mrs North or Hart to Hart. They’ll do whatever they want to do to Booth and Brennan. What the heck, we are just along for the ride.– comment by Sarah C.

Do any of these writers ever see any of these comments, and if they do, do they care at all about them. But it is the mind at other used to watch shows, Castle,NCIS, Royal pains and on and on.I guess the writers union must be of one mind, hell with fans, money money money bottom line.

I find myself loving the pelants story line and his episodes. I do not watch the show for accuracy between how a genius serial killer would try to trick the FBI. But the way they portray him and his character, well quite frankly I love it a d find myself wishing every episode had as much fast paced drama and surprises as the episodes with pelant. They are the kind of episodes that hook someone onto a show.

Please kill Pelant! I hate him so much for always ruining people’s happiness!!!! Bones and Booth deserve to get married and live happily together! And once Pelant is dead, Booth can just tell Bones what really happened! Please!!!

You are well most of you are NUTS “I’m not going to watch again waaaa waaaa”.It’s drama it’s Tv. This week on Bones……… Booth and Bones Go for Icecream and Buy a Puppy,Is that what you want looks like it .They’re BB they will always be BB it’s like the Hannah story it’s a journey.

Bones tv show should go down in history as one of americas worst of all time, hands down, the fact that bones talks like an alien and the confusing often meaningless dialogue along with characters that were obviously jumbled together to form some half retarded cast has truly created a work of complete crap

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! KILL PELANT ALREADY!! And leave Temperance and Booth alone! I’m tired of all the back and forth stuff with their relationship. Give it a rest! Let’s just have a nice Season getting the bad guys!

I think that if they put Booth and Brennan together in the sense they will be engaged again would be great. I know a lot of people may feel that a lot of movies and tv shows do that they always get a happy ending. In this case they deserve a happy ending I think that they have both been through a lot and deserve each other why keep them apart. I feel that what you did kept suspense and anticipation to the show which is great but I feel if you don’t get them on track I feel a lot of fans of this show including me will be very disappointed.

Hi guys,
So I think that Pelant adds the drama we all need in the show. The whole point of him is to trigger a reaction from the viewers. We didn’t like Hannah either, why would we like Pelant he is a psycho killer, but we are all talking about it. These characters, whomever they may be, are there to set events into motion. It all works out eventually always, has it not. We need to stop stressing about the outcome and just wait. Also, to those who keep saying that pelants actions are not plausible, SUSPEND DISBELIEF. It is a TV show, stop looking for the errors, and digging for things that are wrong. With that I will leave you all to ponder what I have said.

I agree totally with you while I am still upset with the outcome of things right now I am positive things will work out for the better even if bones and booth don’t resolve things but I think they will they always do. Also you are right that we need to just be patient and hope for the best

I love Bones!! It’s my all time favorite show! I don’t like the way most of you are saying about the writing of bones, but thats just me. pelant will come to an end,eventually. The pelant stuff is interesting I think! I just hope that B&B will get their happy ending….Thumbs up writers! P.S. I want Brennan and booth to get their happy ending..

I have read most of the comments and I have to agree with the ones that hate the Pelant story line — gone on too, too long. Should have changed his name to GOD. The writers gave him too much power. And imagine all the people he has killed and gotten away with. But I feel personally that the writers were cruel with the final scene with B&B. I never expected that. I love this show and will probably stick with it come rain or shine. Plus I learned a lot about anatomy. Comment by SarahC.

You guys are stupid they are just making the show entertaining and they will get together but love is hard so they are showing that through both and Brennan. They have to have there life put in danger to they are the best at there job. So plenty of people would hate them

Storyline with Pelant is stupid and absurd. Next time there can be vilain able to travel through the time ar an alien shooting lasers on the Earth. It’s simply ridiculous. Even MacGyver was more believable.

At this point, I’m hoping Pelant kills off Booth. I know it’s rash but this show is over and I just want to watch it burn.

They lost me when Pelant forced Hodgins to choose between saving innocent lives and his company. Seriously? It’s not possible to destroy a company that quickly. I had a problem with this same story arc in the last Batman movie.

It’s like the writers regret making Hodgins a multi-millionaire (billionaire?) and just wanted to get rid of his money. Honestly, Bones was loosing me for a while before then but that’s what did it.

Bones has “jumped the shark” although this phrase isn’t as common as it once was. It’s one thing to require some degree of suspending disbelief but when a show other than outright sci-fi gets to the point where things are so improbable (if not impossible) as they have become with Pelant and there writers appear to have run out of worthwhile ideas, then it’s time to end the show. I’ve stopped watching Bones and Kathy Reichs, by tolerating where the show has gone, has caused my admiration for her intelligence, accomplishments and personal values to decrease significantly. It’s disappointing how often greed appears to trump other important considerations including a person’s legacy.

I LOVE the Pelant episodes….they keep ypu in suspense and you want more. Most of my favourite Bones episodes involve the serial killer episodes. I mean come on, its not like Pelant is in every season is it. I think the Pelant story is the best they’ve ever done. Now Booths shot him dead (is he really dead tho??) there must be someone to take his place in order for us to find out the mystery of the alarm clock and the clock in B&Bs kitchen that changed time briefly to the infamous 4:47 while B&B were kissing oblivious. Is it the girl who Pelant reckoned was behind the murders that’s going to take over from Pelant?? He did say to Bones when he held her hostage in the Bone storage with the fake bomb that even if he died it would still carry on. I love it and can’t wait for more but why oh why do they have to have season breaks?? Here in the uk our shows don’t. All I can say is thank god for internet streaming cos season 9 won’t air in the uk for ages yet, I believe were still on season 8 but not sure as I don’t watch it via tv channels so I’m way ahead by streaming so I tease my friend with spoilers who watches when its on tv lol

Pelant story arc was incredibly stupid. It came too far when we have vilain who can build a multifunction hacking device capable of hacking FBI network from a radioclock and hanger. Everything he did was stupid and waaaaay over the top. Nothing else other than real aliens can’t ever top that.

I am a huge fan of Bones, and have been since the very beginning, but this new season will definatly take the show down if the writers don’t make this more like the past seasons. The words sound forced coming from the actors, and the lines don’t sound like the characters at all. No offense, but step it up.

Good thing I’m playing catch up with the past 5 years of Bones because I’d have quit watching with the dullest of serial killers, Pelant, who’s purely cheesy comic book villain – not in any meta way either.

I am a 78 year old woman partially bed ridden I would not have survived had not Bones been on the air. I am a retired professor of literature and I recognize that your series — great actors– great relations series is the best I’VE SEENFOR: DRAMA, HUMOR AND relationships is really great. I’ve never been a fan before and I own all videos 1-9. Some of them I have watched 15 times each. I learn something each time. Booth and bones are Bogart and Bacall or Spencer and Tracy. Please do not this to Bones and their fans. This may sound silly — but they are family to us.tHANKS, Jackie sTRANGE